High capacity hard disk drives (HDDs) and other magnetic storage devices employ thermally stable fine-grained high coercivity media. The high coercivity media requires write fields in excess of those attainable with current write heads, the performance of which are limited by pole tip saturation and material properties. Energy-assisted magnetic recording techniques overcome the coercivity/write-field conflict. In heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR), the temperature of the recording medium in the write zone is elevated to near the Curie point, typically by a light source (e.g., a laser), which eases magnetization by an achievable write field. However, the laser threshold (i.e., the amount of power required to activate the laser) varies depending on the temperature of the laser, which causes inefficiencies in power consumption and performance. Thus, it is desired to implement power control methods and/or devices that reduce unnecessary power consumption by the laser and that provide improved performance.